Chester M. Alter, chancellor emeritus at the University of Denver, died Monday. He was 99.

Alter died in Santa Fe, where he had lived since 2004.

Alter became the university’s 12th chancellor in 1953. The school’s operating budget grew during his 15-year post from more than $4 million to $16 million, according to the university. The campus size also increased, from 75 acres to 125.

“Chester Alter was responsible for the transformation of the University of Denver from a primarily local/regional institution to one having a national scope, both in terms of its academic recognition and student enrollment,” said chancellor emeritus Dwight Smith.

Other decisions Alter made as chancellor were eliminating the football program in 1961 and moving the historic Evans Chapel from its downtown location to campus in 1960.

Alter remained involved with the university even after he retired as chancellor, keeping an office on campus until 2000.

In retirement, he became a consultant with Alter-Ackerman and Associates in Denver and advised the Colorado Bar and American Judicature Society on judicial selection standards.

Alter, who had a doctorate in chemistry from Harvard University, worked from 1942 to 1945 on the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb.

Florida’s state social services agency investigated Nikolas Cruz’s home life more than a year before police say he killed 17 people at his former high school, closing the inquiry after determining that his “final level of risk is low,” despite learning that the teenager had behavioral struggles and was planning to buy a gun, according to an investigative report.